was established. In most of them the medieval estates lingered on in provincial diets (Landtage),[1] and the famous Article XIII. of the Federal Act (Bundesakte) of Vienna decreed that “assemblies of estates” should be set up, wherever not already existing, in the German states. The efforts of Metternich and the statesmen of his school were directed, not so much to abolishing the constitutional model, as to establishing it, if need were, on traditional and conservative lines. This is what was meant by the famous reply of the emperor Francis I. to the Magyar deputation; “All the world is playing the fool and demanding fanciful constitutions.” When the need for making constitutional concessions became urgent, the attempt was accordingly made to base them on the system of estates. But the central diet convoked in 1847 by Frederick William IV. to Berlin, technically a concentration of provincial estates, quickly converted itself as Metternich had prophesied—into a national assembly; and precisely the same thing happened in the case of the first Austrian parliament in 1848. In Hungary the revolution was in some respects more conservative in character. The March Laws of 1848 preserved the general character of the House of Magnates, comparable to the British House of Lords, but converted the Lower House from what was practically representative of the estate of the lesser nobles into a national representative assembly. Of all the sovereign states of Europe only the grand-duchies of Mecklenburg still (1909) retain the ancient system of estates untouched. The diet, which is common to the two duchies, consists of the Ritterschaft, in which all tenants in chivalry (Rittergutsbesitzer), whether noble or non-noble, have a voice, and the Landschaft, which consists of the chief magistrates of the towns. The former is taken as representative of the peasant proprietors and copy-holders (Hintersassen), the latter of the burghers.
The plural form Estates or States (Fr. états, Ger. Stände) is the name commonly given to an assembly of estates (assemblée des états, Ständeversammlung). When such an assembly is not merely local or provincial it is called the estates-general or states-general (états généraux), e.g. in France the assembly of the deputies of the three estates of the realm as distinct from the provincial estates which met periodically in the so-called pays d’états.
For further details about the estates in England and elsewhere see W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. ii. (1896); H. Hallam, The Middle Ages (1855); F. W. Maitland, Constitutional History of England (1908); A. Luchaire, Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France (1883–1885); G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel, 1865–1878); and A. S. Rait, The Scottish Parliament (1901). See also Representation.
ESTATE AND HOUSE AGENTS. A person exercising the
calling of a house agent in England is required, under a penalty
of £20, to take out yearly a licence upon which £2 is charged
as a duty of excise, unless he is licensed as an auctioneer or
appraiser, or is an agent employed in the management of landed
estates, or a solicitor or conveyancer who has taken out his
annual certificate as such. In this connexion a person is deemed
to be a house agent if he advertises for sale or for letting, or in
any way negotiates for the selling or letting of any furnished
house or part of any furnished house (any storey or flat rated
and let as a separate tenement being for this purpose a house);
subject, however, to the qualification that no one is to be deemed
to be a house agent by reason of his letting, or offering to let,
or in any way negotiating for the letting of, any house the annual
rent or value of which does not exceed £25.
A house agent who is merely instructed to act in the usual way of his calling has no authority to bind his employer by a contract. His business is to endeavour to find a person willing to become a purchaser or tenant and then to communicate his offer to the owner. Unless express authority is given to the agent to sell or let, and for that purpose to enter into a binding contract, the principal reserves his right to accept or refuse the offer. As a rule, a house or estate agent has no authority to receive payment on behalf of the principal. Where he is employed to procure a tenant, he must use reasonable diligence to ascertain that the person to whom the property is let through his agency is fit to be a tenant. He does not, however, in any way guarantee the payment of the rent. A house agent may not, for or in expectation of payment, prepare any deed relating to the sale or letting of real or personal estate. There is, however, no similar prohibition as to agreements not under seal, and it is a common practice for house agents to charge for the preparation of them.
House agents are usually remunerated by way of commission. The scale adopted by the Institute of Estate and House Agents embodies the rates usually charged. In the absence of express provision upon the subject between the principal and the agent, commission is payable only when the latter has found a purchaser or tenant. If, however, he had found a person willing to buy or take property upon the terms upon which the principal intimated to him his willingness to sell or let it, the principal will be liable to pay the amount of the commission, even though in fact he refuses or is unable to sell or let it. Where the agent can show that he has brought about a sale or tenancy he will be entitled to the commission notwithstanding the fact that another agent has been paid, or has recovered in an action, commission in respect of the same sale or tenancy. The agent’s authority may be revoked at any time; but, where he has already performed the service for which he was employed, the principal cannot defeat his right to be paid the amount of the commission by subsequently revoking his authority. If the agent is unsuccessful in finding a purchaser or tenant, as the case may be, he will not, as a rule, have any right to remuneration for his efforts in the matter.
Most auctioneers, in addition to holding auctions, carry on the business of house and estate agency. The number of licences issued to house agents and appraisers in England for the year ended 31st March 1899 was 4429, and for the year ended 31st March 1909, 4618. The number of licences issued to auctioneers in England for the corresponding periods was 6389 and 6543 respectively. (H. Ha.)
ESTATE DUTY. For purposes of the national revenue in
the United Kingdom, the Finance Act 1894 imposed on all
property passing by death after the 1st of August 1894 a duty
called estate duty, in lieu of certain other duties previously
payable. The objects of the act were—(1) simplification of the
death duties and equalization as between real and personal
property, and (2) aggregation of all the property passing on a
death, and taxation at rates graduated according to the value
of the whole. Before the act a duty (probate duty) was taken
on the free personal property of deceased persons in the hands
of the executor or administrator, without regard to the subsequent
distribution. The legacy and succession duties were
levied on distribution of the property passing on the death, from
the persons taking any property under the will or intestacy of
the deceased, or under settlement, or by devolution of title on
his death. These two latter duties were mutually exclusive,
and together covered practically all property passing by death.
They were levied at rates graduated according to consanguinity.
In 1888 an attempt was made to equalize the rates of the death
duties as between property which paid the probate and legacy
duties, and property which paid succession duty only. But the
Finance Act 1894 replaced the probate duty by a duty extending
to all property real or personal passing on or by reference to death,
whether by disposition of the deceased or not, without regard
to its tenure or destination. The Finance Acts of 1907 and 1909–1910
increased the scale of duties laid down in 1894.
For this purpose all property passing on a death is aggregated to form one estate, on the capital value of which the duty is charged, at rates graduated from 1 to 15% according to the aggregate value. Besides the property of which the deceased was competent to dispose at his death, the aggregated estate includes property in which he had an interest ceasing on his death, from the cesser of which a benefit accrues, or which was disposed of by him within twelve months of death, or at any time, with reservation of an interest to himself. The extent to
- ↑ These diets are, wherever they still exist, survivals of the “parliaments” of separate territorial units.
